GHR's Inter-Religious Action Initiative works to improve development outcomes, build lasting community connections and advance peace by mobilizing religious leaders and communities to address common challenges. One of the initiative’s largest funding projects was recently cited by the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria. A recent commentary by GHR partner Bishop Sunday Onuoha outlines the way Nigeria leveraged inter-religious collaboration as a weapon in the fight against malaria. “The faith community offers an asset that is inestimable in its potential for driving change,” Onuoha said. “We have a deeply rooted and highly trusted ground game that reaches every village, no matter how small or remote. Faith communities hold a number of key tools to help accelerate the pace of maternal and child survival.” Onuoha also explained the ways inter-religious action can work to mobilize and educate communities in other countries with similar health challenges. Nigeria’s fight against malaria was an excellent example of effective inter-religious action. “Using seed funding from the GHR Foundation and malaria funding from the World Bank,” Onuoha said, “we had huge success in fighting malaria by training over 20,000 faith leaders in the first 18 months of operation.” If you’re interested in collaborating with GHR to support inter-religious collaboration, contact us.